Extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) resist thickness is a major limitation for transferring a pattern to an underlying film such as, e.g., bottom anti-reflective coatings (BARC), spin on silicon arc material (SiARC), low temperature oxide (LTO), silicon nitride (SiN), or other similar films in multi-layer semiconductor patterning stacks. Resist scumming and local thinning of resist lines add additional challenges to pattern transfer by causing bridges and line breaks.